Papers Tussle For Local Readership

Three New Weeklies Have Been Launched In The Past Year And Are Competing With Two Established Dailies For Readers And Advertising Revenue.

November 14, 1993|By Blake Fontenay of The Sentinel Staff

DELAND — For years, doomsayers have predicted the death of newspapers in American society.

Ever since the advent of radio and television, there have been pundits who said newspapers would lose their customers to the electronic media.

But if you're reading this story, you're living proof that print journalism still has an audience.

And in Volusia County - particularly the western part - there are plenty of competing publications trying to tap into that audience these days.

Three weekly newspapers have begun publishing in west Volusia in the past year, including two within the past two months.

The first issue of The DeLand Beacon rolled off the presses about 11 months ago. The Southwest Volusia Reporter followed in early September. And in late October, The DeLand Gazette debuted. Plus, local readers may choose from two large dailies that circulate in the area - The Orlando Sentinel and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal.

The Sentinel is working on plans to beef up its coverage in west Volusia. A spokesman for the News-Journal could not be reached for comment.

At least some of the activity in west Volusia seems to have been precipitated by the demise of the DeLand Sun-News, a daily newspaper with roots that date back to the establishment of the Volusia County Herald in 1877.

The News-Journal bought the Sun-News and its sister publication, The Enterprise, in 1991, then closed both newspapers last year. Representatives of both new DeLand papers said they started their newspapers to fill a perceived void created by the loss of the Sun-News.

''When we started, we really didn't feel like we had anything to lose,'' said Eileen Burns Everett, one of the Beacon's three co-founders. ''We felt very strongly that a town that is a county seat with a major university should have its own newspaper.''

Dick Howard, owner of the Gazette, had a similar mission for his rival publication.

''When the Sun-News was closed, it left a void in west Volusia,'' Howard said. ''I'm not surprised that the three of us are trying to fill that void.''

Even with the influx of smaller papers, the Sentinel and News-Journal are likely to remain the front-runners in the circulation battle.

The Sentinel and News-Journal had average daily circulations of 16,100 and 15,700, respectively, in west Volusia last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. This year's figures were unavailable.

For several years, the Sentinel has offered a twice-weekly section focusing on Volusia news. The Volusia Extra comes out on Thursdays and Sundays.

Volusia County news also appears in daily editions of the Sentinel, in the Local & State section.

Sentinel officials have plans to further expand the newspaper's presence in west Volusia, although those plans have not been made public.

''We are very interested in meeting the needs of our readers in west Volusia County,'' said Ronnie Matthews, the Sentinel's zoned publications manager. ''We are working on plans to meet those needs.''

Jon Roosenraad, journalism department chairman at University of Florida, predicts the ranks of competitors in west Volusia will thin somewhat over the next few months. Only one - or perhaps two - of the weeklies are likely to survive over the long haul, Roosenraad said.

''I would find it unusual if all three were still publishing a year from now,'' he said. ''I wouldn't think there's enough of a market to support all three of them.''

As the oldest of the three weekly publications, the Beacon has already become somewhat of a veteran of newspaper wars.

The notion of starting a newspaper to replace the Sun-News began as a running joke among Everett, co-founder Barbara Shepherd and some of their friends.

But Everett, whose journalism background includes stints at The Shelbyville (Ky.) Sentinel-News and The Louisville (Ky.) Times, and Shepherd, a former writer for the Sun-News and correspondent for The Orlando Sentinel, began to take the idea seriously after they enlisted the help of Joann Kramer, former business manager of the Sun-News.

''We decided that among all of us, we knew enough to do it,'' Everett said.

The Beacon founders didn't have a monopoly on the idea.

We The People, a citizen government watchdog group, was also thinking about starting a newspaper to replace the Sun-News about the same time. Ross Golden, the group's president, said We The People decided to back off after learning about plans for the Beacon.

''They had the money, they had the backing,'' Golden said. ''There was no sense in a bunch of amateurs trying to buck what they were going to do.''

Beacon employees began handing out free copies of the inaugural issue during a DeLand Christmas parade last year.

Within weeks of the Beacon's debut, another group led by former Sun-News employee Bill Siebert began publishing the West Volusia News. The rival News lasted only a couple of issues before folding, however, and Siebert has since moved on to become the Gazette's managing editor.